Success. Reaching Personal Goals and Accomplishments

Mental Preparation Leads to Success in Athletics Professional athletes use mental preparation techniques to improve chances of success. Athletes can visualize the goal they want to complete in order to mentally prepare for the task. Michael Phelps, Lindsey Vonn, and Jason Day all use visualization techniques, and have clear success with them (Gallo).

Additionally, meditation helps prepare the mind for success. Kobe Bryant and LeBron James both meditate before big games (“Famous Athletes Who”). Thus, mental preparation techniques such as visualization and meditation increase the potential for success.

Moreover, visualization helps implant the idea of success into the brain’s agenda. Day visualizes his shot before he swings the golf club (Gallo). Also, Day thinks and believes he will have success before he shoots it. Therefore, thinking success leads to having success by building up the confidence and determination to achieve a goal. When I used to practice basketball in the driveway with my mom, she always used to tell me to visualize my foul shot going in. At first I thought to myself, “this has no impact on my shot’s chances of going in.” To my surprise, once I started to visualize my shot going in, I tended to make more foul shots.

Although visualization does not include the challenges that athletes can face while trying to accomplish a goal.

However, visualization helps motivate the mind to reach success. Overall, visualization increases determination and confidence in achieving success.

Furthermore, meditation helps to relax the mind before a stressful task. Bryant explains that meditation helps him focus on the tasks that he wants to complete each day (“Famous Athletes Who”). This focus on the tasks that they want completed indirectly sets goals for each day. Hence, setting more goals leads to an increased chance of having more success. Additionally, James meditates during timeouts of intense games to have complete focus (“Famous Athletes Who”). Essentially, meditating allows for a person in stressful scenarios to ease their mind and focus on the goals they want to accomplish. If meditating does not help an athlete, the appropriate amount of sleep helps ease the brain of stress. As a result, meditation helps athletes reach success by placing their center of attention on the goal they want to complete.

In essence, I write to athletes that want to learn mental preparation techniques to inform them that visualization helps prepare the mind for success. This mental preparation increases an athlete’s confidence on achieving success. Likewise, I write to athletes that struggle dealing with their stress to advise them to meditate and increase the hours they sleep in order to increase their performance. Those athletes that experience less stress tend to have higher rates of success. Subsequently, mental preparation proves just as important as practices for a game. Ultimately, mental preparation helps improves an athlete’s ability to achieve success.

Technology Halts Success In today’s society, the lack of determination in teens has a direct relation to the rising rates of teenage depression due to the popularity of social media. Adolescents, ranging from the age of 10 to 19, face many new social challenges never seen before. In the year 2000, when social media lacked popularity, 5 to 8 percent of teens faced teen depression (Son and Jeffrey). Additionally in November of 2006, only 55% of teens used social media (Lenhart et al.). In the next decade, rates of teen depression and usage of social media skyrocketed. In 2016, 11.5% of adolescents experienced teen depression (Schrobsdorff). Moreover in 2016, 71% of teens used multiple social media sites (Office of Adolescent). Hence, the increased rates of teen depression and social media contribute to less determination in adolescents.

Furthermore, determination has an inverse relationship with teen depression. This downfall in determination correlates with the lack of self-confidence resulting in an advancement in technology. For instance as the latest and greatest phones come out, teens convince their parents or save up for that expensive phone. Adolescents that cannot afford the newest phone tend to compare themselves to those who have the newest technology, and can potentially think low of themselves. Also, many schools provide students with laptops for school purposes. Some students have their own laptop, and bring that into school. Student’s personal computers usually have more capabilities than the school provided laptop, again establing a technological hierarchy in class. In essence, advances in technology causes an increase in teen depression and little determination.

Subsequently, the use of social media causes adolescents to dim their views of their own personal success, leading to a lack of motivation to set more goals. Social media sites allow users to share life events and promote political views or awareness of a community event. Teens today use social media to display pictures, trips, and even their meals. Therefore, social media causes teens who lack confidence to compare themselves to others and establish a fixed image of themselves. This increased comparison to others causes teens who feel that they have a boring life to lack determination and self-confidence. Self-confidence helps goal-setters to accomplish their goals, and those who lack it have a hard time feeling successful. Overall, social media causes a lack of self-confidence and determination in adolescents that constantly surround themselves with technology.

All in all, teens should go on social media not to compare themselves but find interests in their peers lives. Teens who compare themselves to others on social media will most likely lack determination and self-confidence to accomplish or even set goals. Adolescents who stay true to their goals will have the most success. Ultimately, parents should monitor their child’s use on social media and advise enjoying the presence of people around them rather than the people on the screen.

Brooke Talks Dear Brooke, Since the start of the new year, my teachers have placed an emphasis on goal-setting. However every time I set a goal, I either do not accomplish it or make it easier to achieve. I want to get into a good habit of creating and achieving my goals with minimal alterations. Any advice?

Lazy Student in Louisiana Dear Lazy Student in Louisiana, Good goal-setting includes goals with complex paths to accomplish them. If you can achieve all of your goals, you simply did not make them hard enough. Goal-setting boosts your motivation to achieve a hard task. Additionally, time frames for goal-setting can occur over a course of days, months, and even years.

I advise you to write down your goals on a sheet of paper in your room where you can always see them. That way it will remind you every time that you pass it to have that goal in mind, thus, keeping up your motivation to achieve them and avoid changing your goals. Your goals can vary depending on the subcategory of your life, for instance, school, sports, or hobbies.

Furthermore, altering your goals should not indicate that you lost motivation to achieve it.

Sometimes, unfortunate or unexpected events can occur in your life that can cause your goals to change. My sophomore year of high school I tore my ACL, therefore, I changed my soccer goals for the season to my physical therapy goals.

Dear Brooke, Lately I have struggled to feel successful in my life. As a high school student, I am not first in my class and do not take a lot of AP courses. My school places an emphasis on taking rigorous courses and I feel dumb since I do not take the hardest classes like my friends do. Any advice to feel more successful?

Blue Student in Boston Dear Blue Student in Boston, Your success revolves around yourself and your own life. I cannot stress this enough. Comparing your success to others only lessens your feelings of self-accomplishment and success. You probably think that your friends and yourself share similar traits and enjoy the same activities; however, you do not share the same family, life, and mindset.

Feeling successful does not have to stem from the difficulty of your classes. I have confidence that you have felt accomplished after achieving a good grade on a test or project. These feelings of self-accomplishment define your success. Also, I suggest to write down goals for your academics, sports, or hobbies to note when you achieve them, in order to feel more successful. However, that does not mean to make your goals super easy and accomplishable, but you can reflect on your goals and realize that you too have achieved a lot of success!

Mike Sweeney’s Perspective on Success Weston: ​When do you feel successful?

Mr. Sweeney: ​I feel successful when I worked really hard to achieve a goal.

Weston: ​How do you judge others success? What makes them successful?

Mr. Sweeney: ​Basically for me, somebody that works up to their ability and it is different for every person. In my mind, if someone works up to their capability and their potential and I think that they have achieved success.

Weston: ​Who determines your success?

Mr. Sweeney: ​For me, its me. Obviously outside factors have something to to do with it, like if someone was to come up to me and tell me “yeah that wasn’t good” then my feelings of success would change.

Weston: ​How often do you set and achieve goals?

Mr. Sweeney: ​I set goals all the time, whether it's me working out, me as teacher, my students, me as a coach, and lots of different areas I try to set goals. I achieve them but I can’t say every time. If you achieve your goals every time, you don’t make them hard enough. There’s a fine line, you have to make your goals achievable but yet attainable. If you don’t make them attainable, they are not really goals.

Weston: ​Do you find goal-setting helpful in coaching and for your team?

Mr. Sweeney: ​I do believe that it is helpful, especially in baseball. I believe that you should set goals and try to attain them, rather than go out to practice and start running around.

Weston: ​What makes you feel self-accomplished?

Mr. Sweeney: ​For me, I have my own set​ s ​ tandards that make someone accomplished. If you spend a lot of time and if you put a max effort into everything that you do, that makes you accomplished. Also, you need to truly care about your passions. And since I care so much, it makes me feel self-accomplished for all of the right reasons.

Weston: ​When you feel self-accomplished, do you feel successful?

Mr. Sweeney: ​I would say most of the time, but not always. In coaching and teaching there are numbers in the end, whether its a test that I am grading or game that we could lose. So obviously I don’t feel fulfilled unless every person accomplishes what I think they can accomplish. Those accomplishments can’t happen all the time due to other distractions and time.

Weston: ​How do you define success?

Mr. Sweeney: ​Success is someone who works extremely hard to try to accomplish a set of goals, and won’t quit until they achieve those goals. But the goals have to be attainable and reachable, but not too easy.

Those goals have to be set high enough so they can work hard to achieve them.

Success Stems from Individual Achievements of Goals To the Editor, The periodical W ​ hat is Success?​, defines success as achieving prosperity and popularity. This definition applies to the theatre field, when the audience enjoys the performance the play achieves success. Therefore, the audience gives the play a good review, ultimately increasing its popularity.

Additionally, actors and actresses feel successful when their show becomes popular or they receive an award. However, personal success should not stem from other people’s judgements. Hence, actors and actresses should feel successful when they perform to their expectations. Thus, success defines as an individual achievement of a self-driven goal that results in a sense of self-pride.

Furthermore, personal goals help lead to success. Unorganized adolescents need to format goals to push them in the direction of success. Additionally, a study determining the factors that make Latino high school students successful, concludes that determination and goal setting gives a student a higher chance of success (Vela et al. 12). As personal goals rely on self accountability, the option to lower the standards of a goal can easily occur. Subsequently, achieving personal goals increases an unmotivated teen’s passion for a hobby. Essentially, increasing passion leads to a less emphasis on the desire to feel popular. Larry Moss, a notable acting coach, helps direct up-and-coming plays. His passion for acting makes him place less emphasis on the profits and more on his passion for his career (Mcgeehan). In essence, self-driven goals truly help teens who lack determination to reach success and increase their passions for their hobbies.

Also, self-accomplishment should deem as the indicator of personal success. When success occurs, people should feel proud of themselves. Moreover, feelings of achievement in proud individuals can lead to a yell or even a victory dance. If those actions occur it equates with success.

In today's society, the high value of receiving an award distracts from the true feelings of success.

On the other hand, achieving an individual goal and feeling self-accomplished establishes success.

As a result, this focus on the individual causes a decrease in comparing to others. Overall, success should stem from internal feelings of self-accomplishment.

Hence, I write to teens that dim the importance of goal-setting to encourage the use of this

technique to attain success. More goal setting leads to more determination and passion to reach goals. Also, I write to adolescents that believe success stems from popularity to advise them to focus on self-accomplishment and limit comparison to others. Focusing on individual accomplishments will put less emphasis on receiving awards and following the latest trends, and more on achieving personal objectives. The definition of success should stem from an individual perspective rather than other’s opinions. Ultimately, success should stem from achieving personal goals and feeling self-accomplished.

Brooke Weston lives in Chagrin Falls, Ohio

therapy goals, her

and attends Chagrin Falls High School. She loves to

sense of

run, play soccer, and spend time with friends and

accomplishment and

family. Also, Weston enjoys calculus and spanish

confidence raises,

class and tends to have great success in those. She

ultimately making her

also participates in Link Crew and Student Council

feel successful. In

in school. Weston’s older sister, Kate, attends

addition, Weston’s

Clemson University in South Carolina. Her father,

goal setting allows

Mike, has a great influence on Weston’s success

her to feel

and motivation to achieve her goals.

self-accomplished.

Furthermore, Weston sets goals in every

She believes that

aspect of her life. In the eighth grade she aspired to

accomplishment should stem from within. Thus,

make the varsity soccer team her freshman year

she continually advocates to her friends and family

and play a lot of minutes in each game. The

that their feelings of success should start with

summer going into freshman year, she spent

yourself and not others perspective of your image.

almost every day in the summer working out or

This sense of self-accomplishment makes her have

playing soccer to improve her chances of achieving

confidence and increases her motivation to reach

this goal. As the coach announced the teams,

more success. Weston believes that when she feels

Weston accomplished her goal of making varsity

self-accomplishment she has reached success.

and clinched a spot in the starting line up.

Essentially, Weston thinks that success

Additionally, Weston’s goal setting translates over

comes from goal setting and self-accomplishment.

to her school life. She studies hard every night and

She also believes that success does not come easily.

highly dislikes procrastinating her homework. She

Additionally, Weston concludes that overcoming

keeps an organized planner where she writes down

hardships appears as only a roadblock to achieving

all of her homework, extracurricular activities, or

success, and overcoming those only strengthens

any tasks she has to complete that night. Her goal

self-accomplishment. In order to achieve success,

setting, determination, and organization, reflects

one must possess determination to accomplish

in her high GPA, which boosts her sense of

their self-driven goal. These goals can have some

self-accomplishment.

slight alteration, however, goals should relatively

Today, unfortunately, Weston has dealt with

remain unchanged. Achieving goals leads to more

two ACL injuries within one year, causing her goals

dedication to reach success and confidence.

to change dramatically. Instead of setting goals for

Therefore, goal setting and attaining goals directly

the amount of goals and assists she wants each

lead to self-accomplishment. Ultimately, Weston

season, now she sets goals for each one of her

defines success as achieving individual goals and

physical therapy exercises. As she achieves her

feeling a sense of self-accomplishment.

Works Cited “Day (66) Back in Contention at Major .” ​Golf​, Golf Channel, 12 Aug. 2017, www.golfchannel.com/video/day-66-back-contention-major/.

“Famous Athletes Who Meditate to Improve Their Game and Get That Zen Edge.” ​Zenful Spirit​, 18 Jan. 2018, zenfulspirit.com/2018/01/18/athletes-who-meditate/.

Gallo, Carmine. “Former Pro Athlete Visualizes His Way To Public Speaking Success.” ​Forbes​, Forbes Magazine, 3 Nov. 2015, www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2015/10/31/former-pro-athlete-visualizes-his-way-to-public-speaking-succes s/#a9e796c1b3ff.

“How Much Social Media Is Too Much for a Teen?” ​Norton Children's Hospital​, 5 Apr. 2017, nortonchildrens.com/news/how-much-social-media-is-too-much-for-a-teen/.

Lenhart, Amanda, et al. “Social Media and Young Adults.” ​Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech​, 3 Feb. 2010, www.pewinternet.org/2010/02/03/social-media-and-young-adults/.

Mcgeehan, Patrick. “The Odds Are as Big as Their Dreams.” ​The New York Times​, The New York Times, 28 June 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/06/28/theater/28dill.html.

Mr. Sweeney​. 19 Apr. 2018.

“NBA All-Star Game 2018 .” ​Zimbio​, 18 Feb. 2018, www.zimbio.com/photos/LeBron+James/NBA+All+Star+Game+2018/WPxMdjklYSq. Office of Adolescent Health. “February 2016: Teens' Social Media Use.” ​HHS.gov​, US Department of Health and Human Services, 13 May 2016, www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/news/e-updates/february-2016-teens-social-media-use/index.html.

Schrobsdorff, Susanna. “Teen Depression on the Rise Says New Pediatrics Study.” ​Time​, Time, 16 Nov. 2016, time.com/4572593/increase-depression-teens-teenage-mental-health/.

Son, Sung E., and Jeffrey T. Kirchner. “Depression in Children and Adolescents.” ​American Family Physician​, 15 Nov. 2000, www.aafp.org/afp/2000/1115/p2297.html.

Tutkovics, Aubrey. 29 Mar. 2018.

Vela, Javier Cavazos, et al. “School Counselors' Perceptions of Differences Between Successful and Less Successful Latina/o High School Students.” pp. 2–32. ​ERIC​, files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1074722.pdf.